The Oak Ridge school board on Monday will consider opposing the use of public funds for private schools.

A resolution to be considered by the Oak Ridge Board of Education “strongly opposes” taking funds from public education in any community in the state without agreement from a local school board, without a legal guarantee that the schools receiving the funds will comply with the same curriculum and testing standards required of public schools, and until the state’s Basic Education Program, or BEP, is fully funded by the Tennessee General Assembly.

The resolution says the Tennessee General Assembly, the state’s legislature, will consider legislation in 2017 that would use public funds to pay tuition costs for students to attend private, religious, and non-religious schools.

The General Assembly and Tennessee State Board of Education have adopted high standards for student and teacher performance in public schools, but private schools are not held to the same accountability standards as public schools with regard to academic performance or student access, the resolution says. [Read more…]

This letter is in support of my friend, Keys Fillauer, the current chairman of the Oak Ridge School Board and candidate for re-election. We got lucky when this man decided to serve Oak Ridge Schools.

Keys has given his talent and experience as well as tireless hours working for our schools. I asked him why he does it. What it seemed to come down to is his love for education, people, and this community. Keys is dedicated to keeping our award-winning school system at the forefront of innovation while at the same time keeping our schools a place where each student is empowered to reach their full potential no matter what level they are on.

Keys has lifelong experience in education. As a teacher, a father, and a student first himself, Keys knows the importance of meeting each student where they are in the educational process. This challenge is what keeps Keys going. [Read more…]

Julie Dallas, a Woodland Elementary School parent, and Laura McLean, an Oak Ridge School Board member, received Tennessee School Boards Association Awards at the East Fall District Meeting in September.

The budget will now be considered as part of the annual budget deliberations by the Oak Ridge City Council. The city typically provides a little less than 30 percent of the school system’s funding. The schools also receive state and federal funding. [Read more…]

Bob Eby, vice chair of the Oak Ridge Board of Education, was honored with a Boardmanship Award at a recent Tennessee School Boards Association meeting.

Eby received the Level IV Boardsmanship Award, which was presented by TSBA Executive Director Tammy Grissom during the Fall District meeting in Newport, Tennessee, a press release said.

To achieve the award, Bob accumulated more than 200 credits in various school board activities, including attending TSBA leadership conferences, policy workshops, summer law institutes, state and national conventions, and a TSBA “day on the Hill” in Nashville, and he met with state legislators, the release said. Eby also presented Oak Ridge school board activities at various conferences as well as to local civic groups.

The release said Eby has served as a judge for state school architectural competitions and as an evaluator of other school boards seeking to be recognized as Boards of Distinction as the Oak Ridge School Board is. Level IV also requires a self-evaluation of board activities completed by the candidate for the award.

A. Paige Marshall, left, one of eight candidates for the Oak Ridge School Board, answers a question during the League of Women Voters’ Candidate Forum Wednesday night. To her right are candidates Mike Mahathy, Andrew Howe, Jean Hiser, and incumbent Bob Eby, with WUOT radio host Matt Shafer Powell, who posed the questions. (Photo by Rebecca D. Williams)

Fielding public school questions about technology, tax increases, and the teaching of science versus religion, eight candidates for the Oak Ridge School Board tried to distinguish themselves from one another Wednesday night at the League of Women Voters’ Candidate Forum held at the Oak Ridge High School Amphitheater, to a crowd of about 150.

Board candidates offered largely similar answers, with the greatest difference of opinion posed by Aaron Wells. He spoke against school tax increases and one-to-one technology in schools.

“The biggest impact on me growing up was when my teachers gave me one-to-one education,” Wells said. “How many hours a day are kids staring at a screen? It’s too many. We need to do more with less, because money’s tight. We’ve got to get back to the basics.”

Also participating in the forum were two candidates who are opposing incumbent Chuck Fleischmann, a Republican, for the District 3 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mary M. Headrick, a Democrat, and Cassandra J. Mitchell, an Independent, answered questions. Fleischmann was not present.

Also, Tennessee House Representative for District 32, Kent Calfee, the Republican incumbent, and Joe Kneiser, his Democratic opponent, fielded questions about four referendum questions on the ballot Nov. 4.

A small group of parents and students protest the expanded “parent responsibility zone,” where bus service is not provided, before an Oak Ridge Board of Education meeting on Monday. The board agreed during the meeting to restore bus service to last year’s levels. Pictured above from left are Michelle Doka, Melanie Heiberg, Oak Ridge City Council member Trina Baughn, protest organizer Laurie Paine, and her daughter Kaitlan Paine.

Note: This story was last updated at 11:15 a.m. August 12.

After hearing impassioned pleas from parents and grandparents, the Oak Ridge school board on Monday temporarily restored bus service to about 1,300 students who had been affected by an expanded but controversial “parent responsibility zone.” Parents of students who lived within that zone were responsible for getting their children to and from schools; bus service was not provided.

The parent responsibility zone, or PRZ, was expanded to 1.5 miles in June as part of a move to reduce a $1.25 million budget deficit. But parents of elementary and middle school students, in particular, objected to having students as young as five years old cross busy four-lane roadways like Oak Ridge Turnpike or Illinois Avenue to get to school, or walk past the homes of registered sex offenders or down roads with no sidewalks.

Parents, including single mothers, also expressed concerns about losing their jobs because they have to leave work early to pick up their children. They also said the expanded parent responsibility zone, which some call a “walk zone,” had a disproportionate impact on low-income families and elementary school children. They were disappointed by a lack of crossing guards near their schools, where their children or grandchildren cross busy roads. (City officials say they are accepting applications for crossing guards.)

“This is too dangerous,” resident Regina Wood said. “The safest way to get these kids to school is a bus,” resident Bill Dodge said.

On Monday, after a series of protests that started in July, the Oak Ridge Board of Education agreed in a 4-1 vote to use $300,000 in one-time money from the school system’s fund balance to restore the bus routes this year and then study the issue comprehensively before the next school year—or try to obtain more funding. The Monday night vote essentially reverses the June decision.

The bus routes likely won’t be restored immediately however, and possibly not until October. Among other things, up to three school bus drivers might need to be hired for an additional six routes, and buses will have to be made “road ready.” Still, advocates of restoring bus service were pleased for now. [Read more…]

Bruce Borchers, Veronica O’Hearn, and John W. Smith have joined the Y-12 Community Relations Council. The volunteer group is comprised of 29 community and business leaders who are charged with helping to exchange information between Y-12’s management team and the Oak Ridge and East Tennessee region. The new members were selected by the CRC membership, a press release said.

“B&W Y-12 launched the Community Relations Council in 2002 because we understand the importance of having a strong relationship with our neighbors in and around the Oak Ridge area,” said Bill Reis, B&W Y-12’s vice president of public and government affairs. “We work hard to keep the group updated on the projects/programs and activities at Y-12 and look to them to provide us feedback from the community and to serve as ambassadors for Y-12. It’s a wonderful partnership, and we appreciate each and every one of the CRC members for their commitment to Y-12 and the community.”

B&W Y-12 operates the Y-12 National Security Complex for the National Nuclear Security Administration. [Read more…]

It is not often that a city manager takes the time to write an editorial, but I think this is one of those times.

These past two weeks, I have been working with new School Superintendent Bruce Borchers in reviewing a notice he received from the State of Tennessee that the financial formulas for required school funding have not been met by Oak Ridge. This principle is known as maintenance of effort.

Oak Ridge is one of the few school systems in Tennessee recognized as a city system. The school system is a “department” of the city for budgetary purposes.

Our school system has maintained itself through the years as one of the premier school systems in the state, and citizens here pay much more than the minimum requirements for school maintenance found elsewhere. However, with ups and downs of sales taxes and reductions in some state funding categories, the school and the city have found themselves calculated as coming up short in the statewide formula. This is the problem that Superintendent Borchers and myself find ourselves working together to resolve. With a solution, we will take that to our respective City Council and School Board. [Read more…]

Note: This is a copy of a letter that Oak Ridge City Council member Trina Baughn sent to new Oak Ridge Schools superintendent Bruce Borchers. It is followed by a response from Steve Reddick, who teaches American history to eighth-grade students at Jefferson Middle School and is co-president of the Oak Ridge Education Association.

Here is the letter from Baughn to Borchers:

Trina Baughn

Dr. Borchers,

Shortly after the Sandy Hook tragedy, Oak Ridge city and school officials began discussing the need to shore up security within our schools. Your Board of Education (BOE) immediately demanded the city provide an officer in every school while simultaneously declining our police chief’s offer to conduct the risk assessment needed to identify facility and policy vulnerabilities. Our police department has also repeatedly offered to provide safety/emergency training to your staff. All of those offers have been declined by members of your administration.

Seven months later, we have made very little progress. At the center of it all is a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that was initially drafted months ago to address the lack of cooperation by school administrators and their frequent interference with requisite police work. I am told that school attorneys refuse to agree with the parameters that, at their very core, enable our officers to uphold the law and maintain the safety and security of the public.

The incidents that have led to the need for this MOU are disturbing and give me reason to fear that the original emphasis of protecting our children from external threats is less of a need than that of protecting them from internal threats. [Read more…]

The Oak Ridge Schools are something we can be proud of as a community. We owe a great deal to those individuals who dedicate their time and expertise in keeping our educational system strong.

I have had the privilege of knowing Keys Fillauer for the past 25 years. Our son Billy, a 1999 graduate of Oak Ridge High School, remembers Keys as a “very energetic, enthusiastic, hands-on teacher who brought a lot to the table. He always encouraged students to be involved in the community.”

Through my affiliation with Oak Ridge Schools and the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge, I have had the opportunity to work with many of his students who volunteered for programs and festivals. These students seemed to share a common bond—eager to contribute as well as to learn. How fortunate they are to have had a mentor who has time and again demonstrated his willingness to contribute his time and skills for worthwhile causes.

Specifically, I am grateful to him for being master of ceremonies for The Children’s Museum Gala and the International Festivals in past years. He continues to support the Ronald McDonald House, Boys Club, and the Oak Ridge Playhouse, to name just a few of his many accomplishments.

The future of our educational system, our children, and our community is in good hands with Keys Fillauer as a member of the Oak Ridge School Board.